Concept-Based Teaching Creating Connections for Student Understanding David Chadwell © David Chadwell, July 2006

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Step 1: Review of Standards  Look over your standards and write down concepts that are: Recurring Central to the standards Interesting  Concepts are: Overarching across space and time Not specific

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Step 1: Review of Standards  6 th Grade, partial Laws Rulers Trade Transportation Religion Culture Geography Civilizations Development  7 th Grade, partial Conflict Government Power Growth Imperialism Balance of Power Resources Communication Technology

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Step 2: Grouping Concepts  Place concepts into distinct groups that have something in common.  Label each group with a MAJOR concept

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Step 2: Grouping Concepts Examples  Expansion: globalization, colonialism  Technology: communication, weapons, industrialization  Power: laws, democracy, revolution, political parties, conflicts, inequality  Economics: capitalism, socialism, communism, trade, transportation, labor  Culture: religion, life style, celebrations

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Step 3A: Generating a Big Idea  From Step Two, list the three or four major concepts that are recurring within the standards and that you think are really important. 1. Government 2. Geography 3. Economics 4. Conflict

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Step 3B: Generating a Big Idea  Connect the MAJOR concepts to a final overarching concept that links all of them. The overarching concept can come from your original list or be from a new insight.  Create a sentence using the word “affect”, “are” or “is”. The MAJOR concepts will connect to the overarching concept. The overarching concept is the Big Idea Concept. Conflicts in government, geography, and economics affect power.

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Step 3C: Generating a Big Idea  Read your sentence and ask yourself, “How?” Rewrite your sentence while answering “How”. The desire to increase power brings about changes in government, economics, and geography which cause conflicts.

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Step 3D: Generating a Big Idea  Read your sentence and ask yourself, “So what?” Rewrite your sentence while answering “So what”. The desire to affect power causes conflicts in the lives of people and changes the geography, government and economics of societies.

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way CONGRATULATIONS!  You have created a big idea statement that is based on your content standards. This statement is the vision or mission statement for your classroom. It is what you and your students work toward each day. Use your big idea statement as a question for discussions, exit or entrance slips, or essay questions. Create a rubric to evaluate their responses!

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Step 4: Concept Web  Web your concepts using your main “Big Idea” concept as the center and your MAJOR concepts as the first spokes.  Fill in details and sub-concepts around each MAJOR concept using ideas from your grouped list (in step two.)

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way

Now What?  Big Idea Statement Post as guiding force Helps you make decisions about content Gives purpose to lessons & activities Create questions to continually revise  Major Concepts – Web Preview or review with each unit Graphic organizer to connect units through concepts

(c) David Chadwell, July 2006 for personal use only, not to be distributed or presented in any way Long Range Plans  Big Idea Statement  Unit  Standards  Central Concepts (most of the concepts from the concept web will be taught, but only one or two should really be emphasized or used with a project.)  VERBS from standards  Terms after “including” from standards